A Quantitative Analysis of the Indian Supreme Court's Workload

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (Forthcoming)

38 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2012 Last revised: 13 Mar 2014

See all articles by Nick Robinson

Nick Robinson

International Center for Not-for-Profit Law; Harvard Law School, Center on the Legal Profession

Date Written: December 13, 2012

Abstract

This article analyzes the Indian Supreme Court’s docket in detail from 1993 to 2011. It also draws on available data to describe more broadly the workings of the Court before 1993. The article explains how deficiencies in the way data is currently collected and categorized by the Court presents challenges in developing a full picture of its workload. Using this unique, albeit admittedly imperfect, data set, it then analyzes the Supreme Court’s caseload by geographic region of appeal, subject-matter category, petition type, and other available classifications. Amongst other findings, this analysis shows the Court is disproportionately accessed by those close to Delhi and with more resources and that the Supreme Court’s multiplicity of benches and cases may be undercutting the following of precedent in the Indian judicial system.

Keywords: Indian Supreme Court, workload, case management, backlog, docket, statistics

Suggested Citation

Robinson, Nick, A Quantitative Analysis of the Indian Supreme Court's Workload (December 13, 2012). Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (Forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2189181 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2189181

Nick Robinson (Contact Author)

International Center for Not-for-Profit Law ( email )

1126 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

Harvard Law School, Center on the Legal Profession ( email )

1563 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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